Fatal Pulse

My review was written in March 1988 after watching the movie on Celebrity video cassette.

"Fatal Pulse" is a direct-to-video slasher film that is a throwback to the days before women protested against the genre. Pretty sorority girls are killed in bloody fashion and the campus killer's identity is very predictable.

Murders are tied to a locale, a fraternity house owned by Joe Phelan (a dead ringer for his real-life brother Martin Sheen). Hero Ken Roberts ridiculously uses his girlfriend Michelle McCormick as bait to flush out the killer. Ineffectual cop on the case is played by porn star Herschel Savage, here credited as Harvey Cowen.

Softcore sex tease alternates with spilling of blood, while the windup, that the killer was suffering from a fatal illness and used hallucinogens (that turned him into a maniac) to combat it, comes off as silly. For the umpteenth time, a false ending is tacked on. Acting is way below average.

Someone is killing nubile sorority girls. At first suspicion falls on the creepy live-in landlord of the sorority house (how many college sorority houses have creepy GUYS living in them--and how can I get a job like that?). Then everyone begins to suspect the boyfriend of the heroine, who was with one of the girl's right before she was killed. The final revelation is pretty ridiculous and veers into the realm of science fiction.

This film is preposterous. The dialogue is ludicrous. The acting is abysmal. The murders are laughable. The only remarkable thing about is the way it manages to aggressively undress all the female cast-members (except the lead, who, of course, is by far the best looking). The female victims are even all naked or topless WHEN they are murdered (except for one girl who has just changed her shirt a few minutes earlier, but is technically dressed at the time). When I first saw this in the early 90's I found it pretty sleazy and offensive, but after watching a lot Italian sleaze and Eurotrash films in recent years, I think I've become to desensitized to stuff like this, and was mainly impressed with the fact that only one of the girls here has obviously fake silicone breasts.

This is one slasher movie that could genuinely be labeled "misogynist" though, and not just because of the gratuitous female nudity. Some of the murder scenes are kind of prolonged. One girl is electrocuted--topless, of course--for several boob-bouncing minutes. Another is tied up and smothered with plaster, which the killer takes time to smear all over her bare breasts for some reason before plastering her face. What really bothered me though was not what the killer did to the females, but what he failed to do to do to two insufferably annoying male characters: "Brad", a New Jersey-accented "punk" tough guy played by an actor who left no scenery unchewed whenever he was on screen, and "Captain Marvin" a dimwitted guy who dresses as a superhero and watches re-runs of "Green Acres" and "Petticoat Junction" (remember these are supposed to be COLLEGE students). I really have to wonder about a movie that strips, murders, and sometimes mildly tortures numerous anonymous bimbos (some of whom never even appear in the film before their death scene), but yet fails to put these two male cretins out of everyone's misery.

I won't go much into this film, as I have seen it a couple of times and do like it. It's not half bad. If you've seen Splatter University, and remember it, you'll make out the killer here. Someone is setting up a privileged college student, grounded sort, a brain, with good all American locks and a recently hot, but now dead girlfriend, a victim in a new chain of others, being slashed on campus. Of course we've seen this same type of scenario and atmosphere many times before, but Fatal Pulse, is somewhat entertaining, due to some of the out there characters, one of which, Alex's roommate, who refuses to grow up, caught in the dope and pot smoking, layabout world, who loves cursing, and Green Acres, which to me caused oddity, but he was a hoot, and sort of brightened up the slightly dull and blunt flick. The other oddity was the appearance of Jeff's best buddy with the punk haircut and nose piercing, where led me to really question, how these could of been friends, and he is quick to accuse Alex of being the murderous hand. Joe Estevez, playing a gardener of childhood mentality I liked too, may'be if a tad hammy. They are what breath life into this flick, and honestly, Fatal Pulse is not a half bad flick to wile away the time, and does work quite good as a thriller. It was one of those late 80'S that much faded out into obscurity, if only able to rent at a few video shops. If you see it, it does warrant a view, or really you can go home, just call it a night.

Rejection. Strangulation. Boobs. I'm a firm believer that a film should put its best foot forward first and Fatal Pulse doesn't disappoint, getting its sleaze 'n slaying mix going on early. Its black gloved killer offing chicks in a state of undress set up reminisces of gialli, but there's no crazy plotting or style on display here, this is as basic as they come (apart from the score, which rocks). Fortunately things are frequently very silly and the plot has just about enough oomph for things to keep moving until around about the hour mark where the kicks wear off and the pace ambles to an inane close. Things centre on a non entity by the name of Jeff, an individual so forgettable you'd be better off arbitrarily choosing another character to be the hero. He gets accused of a string of sorority murders on account of being the last to see the first victim alive, and things aren't helped by his wild haired love rival and total ass-hole contemporary Brad (this is actually the second film I've seen from 1988 that has an ass hole love rival called Brad). Fortunately he has a lovely girlfriend and comedy room-mate on his side and together they can get to the truth! Ken Roberts makes no impression at all as Jeff, but Michelle McCormick cuts a nice figure as his gal, whilst elsewhere things are good fun, Joe Estevez as a flashback plagued war vet (cries!) Steven Henry suitably obnoxious as Brad and Blair Karsch best of all as foul mouthed stoner room mate Mark, accompanied by a boing when he appears and draping lively and likable idiocy over his every scene, particularly a stand-out costumed scene fending off potential attackers. Kills are spaced fairly well throughout the film and generally entertaining, the seamy edge to all of them is a plus and whilst there isn't any gore on show the spirit is pretty mean with an edge of misogyny (and one of the least likely throat slashings ever goes down, so there's that as well). A fair amount of nudity is on display and the ladies are generally pretty good on the eyes which is handy, though the film should really have gone further, I guess by 1988 the MPAA was really cracking down and the good stuff just wasn't flying. Not much more to say really, this is mediocre stuff and a film for completists only but it is pretty easy viewing for the most part and better than at least some of its ilk. See it if you have to, 5/10.

this is hands down one of the worst movies i have ever seen. its such a simple crappy movie, yet i had no idea what was going on. the video was crap, the audio was crap, the nude scenes were crap, even the revealment of the killer was crap.

i find it hard to believe that anyone rated this as a 3 or above.